The document production process is changing, and people in and outside of the printing industry are having trouble with the new short-run, variable, color, distributed, digital world. The following patents and examples are related to the pre-print specification of document production parameters:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,568 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,702, both to Tonkin, are directed to selecting components for assembly of a document, and previewing a simulation of an assembled document prior to physical assembly thereof.
Examples of other systems directed to print processing include: (a) HP Instant Delivery Service (www.instant-delivery.com), a service from Hewlett Packard Company provided to enable a Job Receiver to download and print jobs stored as web contents; (b) an ExViewer™ service provided by Mimeo (www.mimeo.com) allowing a user to pre-define document production parameters using the Internet; and (c) the IBM Visual Job Ticket described at http://www.printers.ibm.com/internet/wwsites.nsf/vwwebpublished/vjthome_ww
The printing industry is in a rapid state of change. The economics of printing are forcing print manufactures to adopt such practices as Lean Manufacturing and Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) from order entry to delivery and invoice. The Job Definition Format (JDF) and Job Management Format (JMF) are two technical standards being proposed to help ease the flow of data, information, and content within and among the printing industry. The JDF/JMF standards are perceived as enablers for the printing industry to move to a CIM type of production process.
Predictably, the industry is looking for ways to improve how it conducts business. Included in improvements are ways to reduce production costs and improve efficiency. A goal of the disclosed system and method is to transform the current production print practice by creating an easy to use document production visualization system. This will be done by allowing print providers of any skill level, with minimum training, to see what the customer has specified and what they are supposed to do, and to preview the results of their actions all in a realistic 3D context—thus saving the time and expense of re-work.
The system and method disclosed and referred to herein as Document Production Visualization or DPV, has the value of allowing print buyers and print suppliers to deal with the growing complexity of the data and information associated with on-demand digital printing. Moreover, the system leverages the “virtual reality” computing power typically available on today's computer workstations. One aspect of DPV is the virtual rendering of the document being described by JDF or similar standardized input. This virtual rendering has the advantage of being able to “see” and manipulate in 3D, the document before time and materials are committed to the production process. The document can be viewed, as it should appear in a final, finished form, or at any stage of a production process.
DPV can assist print buyers and print manufactures by allowing the two to adapt CIM and JDF/JMF technologies, but with the aid of visualization tools—thereby avoiding both having to understand the complexity of the formats and associated data, or the information behind these technologies. DPV is intended to combine the functionality of computer-aided drawing and computer-integrated manufacturing to produce a system where a user (e.g., customer, print shop manager, pressman, quality inspector) is able to see a 3D rendering of the document, and interactively change the view, open and turn pages, etc. so that the look and feel of the document can be appreciated before the document is released for production printing.
Disclosed in an embodiment herein is a method for pre-print visualization of a job to be printed, comprising the steps of: submitting all content of the print job; virtual rendering of the job in 3D on a user interface using print-quality representations of content, where a user can observe job-specific aspects and change a point of view relative to the rendering, said virtual rendering step further including selecting and viewing individual pages of the print job; receiving user approval for production of the print job; and signaling such approval and forwarding the print job and virtual rendering for production of the print job.
Disclosed in another embodiment herein is a method for processing a print job by a pre-print virtual rendering system, the method comprising: receiving a print job request in a job definition format, the job definition format identifying a set of print job aspects to be completed during execution of the print job; retrieving data defining at least one printing environment; submitting the print job and data defining at least one printing environment to a virtual rendering system, said virtual rendering system representing at least a subset of the print job aspects in a 3D display format such that a user can observe the print job aspects and change a point of view relative to the rendering; obtaining user approval for production of the print job as depicted in the virtual rendering; and forwarding the print job and virtual rendering for production of the print job.
Also disclosed in a further embodiment is a pre-print virtual rendering system, comprising: a print job request in a job definition format, the job definition format identifying a set of print job aspects to be completed during execution of the print job; memory for storing the print job and data defining at least one printing environment in which the print job will be rendered; a video display system having a video processor and video display; a processor operatively associated with said video display system, operating in response to pre-programmed instructions and at least one aspect of the print job as defined by the job definition format, to create at least one 3D display object, where said object is rendered by the video display system in accordance with the print job aspect; a user-interface, operatively associated with said processor, for displaying the at least one 3D display object from a plurality of perspectives in response to a user's input, sending in response to a user's selection, a signal to said processor, wherein said signal indicates user approval for production of the print job as depicted in the virtual rendering; and said processor, in response to the user approval, operating to forward the print job for production. It will be further appreciated that the virtual rendering system may operate in a local or distributed environment, where it is possible to send the virtual rendering over a network for remote approval and editing.
The DPV system and method described herein are advantageous because they make it unnecessary to produce and provide proof versions of a document to be printed, yet enable a similar level of review and approval. In addition, they can be used to monitor the production process, and as a quality control feature, enable the actual job to be compared to the virtually rendered output in order to identify any errors. These techniques are advantageous because they provide a range of alternatives, each of which is useful in appropriate situations, while permitting efficient pre-print processing of a print job. As a result of the DPV system and method, customer and printers will find themselves in a position to quickly reach approval of desired aspects for a print job, while eliminating any possibility of ambiguity. In essence, the virtual rendering may be so detailed as to modify or become a surrogate for a job ticket or similar document print request.
The method and apparatus will be described in connection with a preferred embodiment, however, it will be understood that there is no intent to limit the invention to the embodiment described. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope defined by the appended claims.